WCBC

January 14th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

Six days a week, Monday through Saturday, the City of Cumberland collects trash from two to three thousand homes per day. That equates to approximately 25 tons per day or 700 tons per month!

“Most of us don’t think about trash collection on a regular basis,” commented Raquel Ketterman, Environmental Specialist for the City of Cumberland. “And it can seem a little complicated.”

So to make things a little easier for the community let’s talk trash!

The city has a contract with Burgmeier’s Hauling, Inc to handle all curbside garbage collection, including both co-mingled container recycling and mixed paper recycling.  Burgmeier’s garbage pickup starts as early as 4 am. “It’s a grueling job and these men and women work hard on our behalf,” explained Ketterman.  It is important to have trash and recycling out on the curb before the collections start.

Cumberland is the only town in Allegany County that offers curbside recycling, as well as, regular trash pickup each week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are co-mingled container recycling days and Thursday, Friday and Saturday are mixed paper recycling days.  Co-mingled container recycling includes plastics, metals and glass (bottles/jars) and mixed paper recycling includes bundles of paper, magazines, books and cardboard. The more items that can be recycled means less product going into the local landfill. Mixed paper recycling goes directly the local Penn-Mar Recycling facility on Kelly Road where it is broken down into fiber and sold to companies producing recycled materials.

“We get a lot of questions from our residents,” commented Ketterman, “and we are always happy to work with Burgmeier’s to supply answers.   Probably the most common question we receive currently is about garbage pickup in inclement weather.”

“Recently, we had experienced a snow day that closed the landfill in Frostburg.  So, trash pickup was cancelled for the day. If that happens, we ask that residents bring the bags of garbage back in from the curb.” Trash is to be set back out on your next regularly scheduled trash day along with the recycling based on the regular recycling schedule. For example if there is a cancellation on the Wednesday route; trash will be collected again on Saturday with mixed paper recycling.  The co-mingled recycling would not be collected that week due to the Wednesday cancellation.

There are some specific observed holidays with no pick-up including New Years’ Day, Memorial Day, 4^th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the case of trash collection interruptions over the holidays, trash is to be placed out on your next regularly scheduled trash day.

If you notice your trash was the only one not collected yet on your street, you may want to call and we will be glad to check out the situation and make sure it is corrected.  Occasionally residents may not get their garbage out soon enough, place it out on the wrong day, or it was not clearly visible when the collection occurred.

To find out whether there is a delay in collection services or a cancelation residents can check the City’s News & Announcements at http://www.ci.cumberland.md.us/, tune into the local radio stations and/or check Visit Cumberland Maryland Citybeat on Facebook.

Cumberland residents may get text or email notifications on trash pick-up, as well as, other City items by going online at http://www.cumberlandmd.gov/list.aspx?Mode=Subscribe#alertCenter. Sign-up for Notify Me!

For specific garbage pick-up questions, call Burgmeier’s Hauling, Inc. at 301-777-0416 or the city of Cumberland’s Environmental office at 301-759-6604.